Sweet dreams

A nap with no guilt

If we are one of the normal hard-working people of the world today, the last time we napped in the afternoon was when we were in kindergarten. It is hard to imagine napping in this fast-paced world, especially in our office after lunch. What would our colleagues think? What would we think about ourselves? Certainly the thoughts would not be very positive.

Napping is actually very good for the brain. Research done by Sara Mednick, a researcher from Harvard University, working for the Salk Institute, suggests that perhaps a good nap is as good as a good night's sleep.

A research on memory found that if subjects took a good night's sleep between memory tasks, scores were usually higher. Subjects who were asked to remember items and perform a memory test the same day do score slightly lower. The test was repeated with a nap in between remembering and memory test. A stunning effect was found. A good nap raised scores almost like a good night's sleep. Within these few years a lot of research on napping has been done and more and more scientists have become believers of afternoon naps.

Let's see the reasons why you should nap a bit in the afternoon.

First of all, napping increases alertness. This is one of the benefits that people like the most. Mednick says, "Whether you are on the road, observing market trends, diagnosing patients or interacting with clients, staying alert is the most important determinant of your efficiency." A lot of us would agree with her.

Napping also speeds up you motor performance. You don't have to be a pianist to need good motor performance. Typing on a keyboard needs excellent motor coordination as well. Napping a bit can increase your accuracy.

We all know that making mistakes can cost time, money, energy and sometimes even lives. So whatever profession you are in, or even for stay-at-home mums, napping can help you perform your jobs and chores better at the same speed or even faster.

And for my female readers, reading the following lines might convince you to nap more than other things I have mentioned so far.

Napping preserves your youthful looks. This is because nothing ages you like fatigue. If you add a nap to your regimen, not only will it improve your skin and tissue regeneration, it will also keep you looking younger longer.

Speaking of beauty sleep, well, napping is truly beauty sleep. Also if you need to lose weight, napping will help you do just that. Research shows that sleepy people tend to reach for high-fat, sugar-rich foods more than people who are rested. So a good nap will help you resist potato chips and cheesecakes and also produce growth hormones and reduces body fat.

If you are feeling down and depressed too often than you like, perhaps napping can help you deal with your emotions better. While sleep deprivation causes irritability, depression and anger, a good nap will bathe your brain with serotonin. This will reverse the effect of depression and produce a more positive outlook.

Let me introduce you to a great napper. Her name is Anne-Marie McDermott. Perhaps some of you have been to her performance before. When she was 12, she performed Felix Mendelssohn's Concerto in G minor with a full orchestra at Carnegie Hall. In her mid-teen years, her schedule was so hectic that her mentor at the Manhattan School of Music suggested meditation but she discovered napping instead. From that day on, while performing around the world, she also adopted a habit of napping in the afternoon.

By the age of 22, napping has become an integral part of her routine as practicing scales. "I treat it almost like a religious thing," she says. "My nap on concert days is the most critical of all, since I have to be at my optimal level of performance when I take the stage."

She said sometimes napping for an hour is enough. However, if she is a soloist carrying the entire performance, the nap might be as long as two hours. Even on some days when she doesn't have time, she will lay her head on her dressing table to "zone out" for 10 minutes. Napping did help her perform better by far.

But what about the rest of us? In a perfect world, society would give us a chance to be great nappers. Whether we are people who teach at school, drive taxis, write software, balance corporate accounts, raise children, aren't we entitled to a nap's benefits too?
So this is for the managers and business owners. Do you know that napping can reduce absenteeism, increases productivity, increase employees retention, and saves money?

A 1999 study concluded that healthy employees often miss work because of fatigue. Also, Nasa napping studies report an average productivity increase of 13 per cent. At the end, comparing a nap room with a cost of building a gym, hiring a massage therapist, or bringing in wellness trainers, and a nap comes out looking like a bargain.

Napping can be very good for your brain and for your mood. If you have not done it since five, perhaps today might be a good start. Good afternoon nap and sweet dreams!